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Graeme McDowell carded a level par second round at the ISPS Handa World Cup of Golf in Australia with team mate Shane Lowry signing for one stroke more for a 72.
Ireland are in 11th ahead of the weekend on +6 and thirteen strokes off the leader Thomas Bjorn.
On day two Bjorn continued his love affair with the Royal Melbourne Golf Course shooting a a 3-under 68 to take a one stroke lead into the weekend.
Bjorn leads the tournament at 8-under par, one ahead of American Kevin Streelman.
Portugal’s Ricardo Santos shot a third round of 4-under 67 to sit in a tie for third alongside Australia’s Jason Day, the Australians fighting hard in both the team and individual components of the tournament with help from a revitalised Adam Scott.
Despite being tested on numerous occasions by the course, leader Bjorn’s affection for Royal Melbourne continued to shine.
“I love this course,” said Bjorn who leads despite three putting the first.
“There were a couple of things that happened on the golf course today that really tested me.”
“I just want to play 72 holes, stay focussed, stay concentrated, knowing that this is a golf course that a lot of people are going to find difficult.”
Bjorn’s admiration also extended to local hero Adam Scott.
“You have got the greatest ambassador in golf, the nicest guy you will ever meet and what he is doing for Australian golf at the moment is just remarkable. Most other golfers would have chased a bit of cash around the world and done other things and, you know, Australia should be proud of what he does these four weeks that’s for sure.”
Out this morning Streelman got out to an early lead over the field of 60, the 35-year-old starting with four consecutive birdies.
However disaster struck towards the end of the American’s front nine, Streelman carding a bogey and double bogey on holes eight and nine.
“I just hit it in the wrong part of the golf course, No.8 and No.9, and Royal Melbourne will bite you when you do that which is what makes it such an awesome golf course,” he said.
Signing for a 1-under 70 an unlucky Jason Day was rueing a round that saw a number of putts lip out.
“I had three lip outs, pretty harsh ones, but I’m definitely happy with shooting one under today, especially being out here at Royal Melbourne with how hard and fast the greens are - it can definitely go south pretty quick.”
Finishing at 4-under for the tournament, Day said he was motivated by the home-crowd support around Royal Melbourne that included a number of The Fanatics in full sing.
“It just kind of takes your mind away from what has happened. When you are play in a different sport like football and you are not kicking that great, you can kind of take your aggression out on someone else.”
“We can’t really go and tackle someone across the green so to have the fanatics there to take our minds of mental errors is a good thing.”
Starting at the opposite end of the leaderboard fellow Aussie Adam Scott wasted no time in trying to make amends for yesterday’s disappointing round.
The Queenslander birdied both the first and second hole on his way to a second round 3-under par 68 total.
“I needed to have a decent score today and it was hard out there. I do not think there were too many great scores to be had because Royal Melbourne is playing tricky so it felt like a hard working 68,” said Scott.
“It would be nice if I could play my way up there to the top few individually tomorrow and tee off around Jason as well. We both just have to play well over the weekend but the teams competition is well within our reach and six shots between two people can change very quickly so I think we are looking in good shape for a good weekend.”
In the teams component, the United States leads at 247 (-10), followed by Denmark at 277(-7) with Japan and Australia tied for third at 281 (-3).
